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We all love instagram, but what to do with those square photos if you want to print them? It’s hard to find a square frame, and you can’t scale them much larger because of the quality. But I have a solution for you! Instacubes!

Supplies:

Wooden Block
Spray Paint (optional)
Photo Paper
Printer

First find a wood block. They have these wooden cubes at most craft stores. Measure a side of your cube.

Next, set up your favorite 6 instagram photos to print. I made mine a little smaller than each side of my cube so they all had a border, but you can go all the way to the edge as well.

Paint your cube if you like, or keep its wood appearance. Once you’ve printed and cut your instagram photos, spray some spray adhesive to the back of each, and stick it on your cube.

This is a simple, cost-effective, unique way to display your instagram photos. How cute would a bunch of these blocks be stacked up on a shelf? Or even as a fun centerpiece at a wedding filled with photos of the bride and groom! So many possibilities.

I made this Instacube for Katie, one of our winners of our “Photo-a-Day Challenge” on facebook. Be sure to follow us for fun DIY updates and more contests!

Just a couple days ago I received a text message from our friend and former roommate, Sam, asking about the best ways to paint a piece of unfinished wood furniture. In return for our knowledge, she promised to take pictures of the process and send them our way:

Supplies:

Piece of unfinished furniture or wood

Paint or primer

Stain

Paint brushes

A piece of plastic on which to do this, if working on this indoors

Dry cloth or rag

“I took an old Ikea night stand that I have had for years.”

“Stenciled on a design I wanted”

“Took primer and painted the areas I wanted white then used a stain and stained the whole night stand.”

“I took a dry cloth and wiped down the white areas after because they seemed a little sticky but it wasn’t really necessary.”

And there you have it! In just a few simple steps, Sam turned this run-of-the-mill nightstand into a personalized piece with lost of character!

Like this:

One of the best ways to save money is by cooking at home, and since this girl is back in school, the budget is tight! When cooking at home, spices are your best friend, but your cabinet’s worst enemy. My spices have completely overtaken an entire shelf of cabinet space and I have been wracking my brain for a solution. Unfortunately I don’t have the space to use magnets and hang them all up in plain sight, or the money to buy a fancy spice rack, so here is the simple solution I came up with.

Supplies:

Box – smaller size, with shallow edges is best

Paint

Sharpie marker

Online shopping is another way to save some dough(as long as you don’t go overboard) because you can find amazing coupon deals and you don’t have to waste gas driving to the store. My most recent purchase came in this box, which is just about the perfect size for my spice collection.

I cut off the top flap and painted the inside of the box white and used some of the gold paint from my last project on the outside. This will take a few coats to cover the natural color of the cardboard. Some other ways you could the cover the box are with patterned paper, fabric, newspaper, magazine images, spray paint, Mod Podge, etc. So go crazy with the personalization!

Here is my disorganized spice cabinet. I have to shuffle them around every time I cook and there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to where they are placed back. What a mess!

While all of my spices don’t fit in the box, the ones I use the most do. This is a huge help because when I go to cook something, I can just take out the entire spice box, rather than running back and forth between the stove and my spice cabinet!

All organized and look at all the space I have now! The stuff that didn’t fit in the box are mainly back-ups that I had purchased because I will be running out of the other one very soon. This quick project can also be just as easily done with a store bought box/basket, tupperware or a serving tray.

I saw a pattern awhile back that stuck with me and I decided to replicate it on some wine glasses over the weekend. So here’s how to do it:

Supplies:

Glassware
Acrylic Paint
A paint brush or pencil
An oven

Dip the end of your paintbrush or pencil into acrylic paint.

On the INSIDE of your glass make dots with your first color.

I chose 3 colors for each wine glass and I like the way each turned out. So I guess I’d recommend 3 or more colors if you are going to replicate this pattern.

Once you’ve finished your glasses, place them in a cold oven. Turn the oven t0 350 and let the glasses stay in there for a half hour. After the half hour is over, turn the oven off and let the glasses sit in there until the oven is cool.

Now enjoy!
I washed the glasses to make sure the paint didn’t come off-and it didn’t! It’s definitely baked on there. With gentle washing, the glasses hold up just fine.

Like this:

My roommate, Alex, asked if I had any suggestions on how to revamp her bedroom and for some reason wine crates had been on my brain, so I suggested she use them to free up some of her storage space and display her stuff in a fun way.

Supplies:

Wooden wine crates

Paint – optional

L brackets

Screws

Power drill

The wine crates are great because they’re sturdy, neatly made, free and the options for customization are endless – paint, decoupage, connect them all together, leave them separate, I even saw an amazing wall built out of them!

Here is the before photo of Alex’s room. That small set of drawers on the floor blocks the entry way, but acts as her vanity so it needed to stay close to the mirror.

We also thought a display area above the radiator would be a nice addition to her workstation.

Alex decided on a neon pink accent color painted just around the front edge.

Once the boxes were painted, we hung them on the wall using L brackets.

We wanted the brackets to be hidden, so we attached them to the wall so that the boxes would sit on top of them which you can see above.

Here is one of the boxes all set up! She went with a green accent to match her drawings already on display.

And here is Alex’s new makeup/bookshelf storage area!

So for a total of $10, spent only on the hardware, Alex has some new shelves and more open floor space. So go ask your local wine retailer to save you some wine crates!

Like this:

Before I moved I realized that the tops of my furniture were loaded down with picture frames and tchotchkes. Having these things spread out and taking up so much space was really bogging me down mentally so I did a bit of research and decided to make a shelf dedicated just to displaying all of my photos of family and friends. While packing I also noticed that I had way more jewelry than I knew and figured I would wear it more often if I could see it all. Thus was born a picture shelf/jewelry display combo.

Supplies:

Lumber – I used a scrap piece of moulding and an 8′ board

Screw gun

Screw driver(yes, both)

Drill bits

Hooks – I used 80 total

Shelf brackets

Paint

Paint brush

Pencil

Level

To start I gave the piece of moulding a couple coats of gesso – basically as a primer. I wasn’t sure how was I was going to finish it at this point so I kept it simple.

While it was drying I went and picked up some hooks. Then I marked off where to pre-drill holes. The piece of moulding measured 7′-10″ which ended up being perfect for an 8′ shelf, allowing for brackets on either end that are an inch wide. After doing the math (80 hooks spread out over 94 inches) I decided to space the hooks out an inch apart, leaving 7 inches on either end.

Time for the drill! This part is obviously tedious but took surprisingly less time than I expected.

All the hooks are in and it looks a bit crazy. Everyone thought 80 hooks was overkill but those spaces fill up quicker than you may think!

Attaching the shelf to the piece of moulding took a bit of measuring and lining up. I marked off 4 spots along each to pre-drill where I wanted the screws to go to make sure they lined up evenly.

Once the shelf and moulding were attached I screwed in the wall brackets.

Using this little shelf and framed poster as inspiration, I decided to the paint the new shelf white underneath and black on the top.

Once the paint dried, I got to work on hanging this bad boy. I was home alone so I had to figure out how to do this by myself and make it even. To start, I centered the shelf on the wall and marked where one of the screws for the bracket would go. From there I was able to use my handy level app to figure out where the screws for the other brackets should be placed.

This shelf and accessory display filled up very quickly! I love having everything out and visible while still organized and neat. The project itself came together very easily – the hardest part was waiting for the paint to dry! It is also so easy to customize to fit any space and use any size scraps you may come across.

I’m heading back to school in a few short weeks and realized that I am in need of school supplies for the first time in 3 years! My organization style has changed over the years and these days I am really enjoying the free form of sketch books as opposed to lined notebooks. I stopped by Michaels and picked up three new sketchbooks but was a little concerned that since they all look exactly the same I would mix up the class subjects that they correspond with. Here is my quick fix:

Supplies:

Notebooks

Spray paint

Here are my fresh new sketchbooks alongside one that I currently use for just about everything. Check out my schedule for today – yikes!

I just laid the sketchbooks down with the covers open and spray painted each one a different color. It took me less than 5 minutes and now I don’t have to worry about grabbing the wrong one. I love the size of these because they fit in almost all of my purses while still being big enough to allow some space for taking notes and drawing out ideas. The paper has a nice weight to it and the spiral is wide enough to accommodate a pen on the inside, keeping them from getting lost so easily!